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Fall Festival returns to Black Creek Pioneer Village

TORONTO, Sept. 14, 2015 /CNW/ - Come celebrate the colours and flavours of the fall at the annual Pioneer Harvest Festival at Black Creek Pioneer Village this weekend, Sept. 19 and 20. This year the event has been expanded to two days of delicious food and themes: Saturday – the Mennonite farmers market, and Sunday – local food delights.

On Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., the Pioneer Harvest Festival is focused on tasty Mennonite and Pennsylvania-German offerings such as homemade pies, cheese curds, sausages, apple butter, hand-made ice cream and other international delights. Visitors are welcome to eat their treats on site or take them home. The event features a variety of demonstrations, including quilt making, candle dipping, grain threshing, cider milling and sausage making by the Pennsylvania-German Folklore Society. There's also a rummage sale, a furniture sale, horse-drawn wagon rides, tours of the historic brewery and a Mennonite quilt auction.

The Toronto Mennonite Festival is a fundraiser for the Mennonite Central Committee's work of relief, community development and peacebuilding here in Canada and in 60 countries around the world. It's the 59th annual Pioneer Festival to be hosted by the Village.

On Sunday, the festival continues with its autumn food theme – this time of a local nature. Highlights include a farmers' market, international food to sample on site or take home, vendors, pioneer demonstrations, and local food trucks such as Curbalicious, Food Cabbie and Dairy Belle. Visitors to the village can take a tour of the historic brewery, ride on a horse-drawn wagon, interact with barnyard animals and enjoy the live music of Chris Dube and Kelsi Mayne.

Returning again this year, the Village hosts British Home Child Day on Sunday, Sept. 27. The event honours the struggles of the more than 100,000 British children who were sent to Canada from the late 1860's right up to 1948, used as indentured farm and domestic workers. Visitors can take part in a variety of workshops, activities, video presentations and guest speaker lectures. As well, visitors can attend a special British Home Children Descendants Tea and Open Mic to discuss the often difficult lives of these children, share family stories and examine this forgotten period of Canada's history.